The 10 Best Carpet Plants for a Planted Aquarium and What They Actually Need
# The Ultimate Aquarium Carpet Plant Ranking: Our Crew Settles the Debate Once and For All Right, so after six months of arguing about this in the group chat and…
Dwarf Water Lettuce and the Nano Tank Version Nobody Tells You About
# Dwarf Water Lettuce and the Nano Tank Version Nobody Tells You About I’d been running my first nano tank for about three months when I spotted this tiny floating…
Duckweed and the Plant Everyone Warns You About for Good Reason
# Duckweed and the Plant Everyone Warns You About for Good Reason I made the mistake exactly once. A mate handed me a small plastic bag with what looked like…
Red Root Floaters and the Only Surface Plant That Gives You Actual Colour
# Red Root Floaters and the Only Surface Plant That Gives You Actual Colour I’ve kept a lot of floating plants over the years. Started with the usual suspects when…
Amazon Frogbit vs Regular Frogbit and Whether the Difference Actually Matters
# Amazon Frogbit vs Regular Frogbit and Whether the Difference Actually Matters I’ve been staring at two nearly identical floating plants for the better part of twenty minutes, trying to…
Water Sprite and the Floater That Works Just as Well Planted in Substrate
# Water Sprite: The Floater That Works Just as Well Planted in Substrate I picked up my first water sprite cutting from a bloke on Craigslist who was practically begging…
Riccia and the Floating Plant That Aquascapers Decided Should Live Underwater
# Riccia and the Floating Plant That Aquascapers Decided Should Live Underwater I discovered Riccia fluitans the way most people do: I was looking for something completely different and ended…
Anubias Nana and the Bulletproof Plant That Survives Anything You Throw at It
# Anubias Nana and the Bulletproof Plant That Survives Anything You Throw at It I bought my first Anubias nana because the bloke at the shop said it was impossible…
Amazon Sword and the Centrepiece Plant That Takes Over Your Entire Tank
# Amazon Sword and the Centrepiece Plant That Takes Over Your Entire Tank I bought my first Amazon sword because I needed something green and substantial for the back corner…
Frogbit and Why Every Shrimp Keeper Ends Up With a Bucket of the Stuff
# Frogbit and Why Every Shrimp Keeper Ends Up With a Bucket of the Stuff I started keeping cherry shrimp in a 25-litre cube with a handful of Java moss…
Water Lettuce and the Floater That Looks Brilliant Until It Takes Over
# Water Lettuce and the Floater That Looks Brilliant Until It Takes Over I’ve been keeping water lettuce in various tanks for about three years now, and I still haven’t…
Marimo Moss Balls and Whether They Actually Do Anything Useful in Your Tank
# Marimo Moss Balls and Whether They Actually Do Anything Useful in Your Tank I bought my first marimo moss ball because it was sitting there looking like a small…
Crypts and the Low Maintenance Root Feeders That Hate Being Moved
# Crypts and the Low Maintenance Root Feeders That Hate Being Moved I learned about crypt melt the hard way. Three weeks into keeping my first planted tank, I decided…
Bacopa Monnieri and the Beginner Stem Plant That Actually Looks Good
# Bacopa Monnieri and the Beginner Stem Plant That Actually Looks Good I’ve been teaching middle school biology for eight years, and I’ve learned that the best way to get…
Java Moss and Why Every Planted Tank Eventually Ends Up Covered in It
# Java Moss and Why Every Planted Tank Eventually Ends Up Covered in It I started keeping a small tub of java moss as backup material for my classroom tanks.…
Bucephalandra and the Slow Grower That Became the Most Collected Plant in the Hobby
# Bucephalandra and the Slow Grower That Became the Most Collected Plant in the Hobby I’ve got a confession: I started collecting Bucephalandra because I thought it would be cheap.…
Anacharis and the Fast Growing Stem Plant That Doubles as a Water Purifier
# Anacharis: The Fast Growing Stem Plant That Doubles as a Water Purifier I walked into that aquatics shop eighteen months ago planning to buy a goldfish bowl and some…
Hornwort and the Floating Stem Plant That Grows Whether You Want It to or Not
# Hornwort and the Floating Stem Plant That Grows Whether You Want It to or Not I bought my first bit of hornwort for three pounds fifty from a local…
Salvinia and the Surface Plant That Blocks Light Better Than Any Lid
# Salvinia and the Surface Plant That Blocks Light Better Than Any Lid I’ve been keeping planted tanks for eight years now, and I thought I understood surface coverage until…
Ludwigia Repens and the Red Plant That Doesn’t Need Expert Level Lighting
# Ludwigia Repens and the Red Plant That Doesn’t Need Expert Level Lighting I spent my first eighteen months in this hobby convinced that red plants were for other people.…
Monte Carlo and the Carpet Plant That Changed What Beginners Think Is Possible
# Monte Carlo and the Carpet Plant That Changed What Beginners Think Is Possible I’ve been keeping planted tanks for over two years now, and I still remember the first…
The 10 Best Freshwater Aquarium Plants That Actually Thrive
# The Definitive Ranking: 10 Best Planted Tank Species That Actually Work in Real Tanks Right, so we finally sat down and hashed this out. Took us three sessions and…
Why My Fish Hated My “Perfect” Aquascape (And What I Learned About Actually Designing for Them)
So I thought I was super cool and clever with my first real shot at aquascaping. I’d seen (probably) 50 YouTube videos; I’d spent a fortune at the pet store;…
Why I Started Using Weird Stuff in My Fish Tanks (And What Actually Worked)
As a former corporate sales professional for fifteen years, I’ve spent years following playbooks that other people wrote. After discovering aquascaping as a hobby, I quickly became skilled at replicating…
Why I’m Obsessed with 5-Gallon Tanks (And You Should Be Too)
You know what’s funny? Most people assume the larger the tank, the simpler the task; however, I’ve found that my five-gallon setups (a 5-gallon) have taught me more about aquascaping…
Why My 20-Gallon Tank Keeps Me Coming Back – Hard-Won Lessons from Five Years of Aquascaping
You know what’s funny? After setting up tanks from 5-gallon cubes for desktops, to 75 gallons that nearly cracked my floor, I always find myself coming back to a 20…
How I Stopped Following Rules and Started Making Aquascapes That Actually Mean Something
What’s funny is I used to think of Aquascaping like underwater gardening with super specific pH needs. I had this little book full of all the plant species I was…
Planted Aquarium Aquascaping and the Difference Between a Fish Tank and an Aquascape
If you walk into your typical fish shop you’re likely to find two completely different types of fish keeping happening. Rows of pragmatic tanks full of fish that are healthy…
Japanese Planted Aquarium Styles and What Makes Them Different From Everything Else
When searching for aquarium inspiration online, it doesn’t take long to come across photos of aquariums that look effortlessly beautiful. Perfect even spreads of mosses extending into the distance, stones…
Iwagumi Aquascape and the Minimalist Rock Layout That Looks Simple but Isn’t
If you’ve never seen a good Iwagumi aquascape up close, they can seem deceivingly simple. Some strategically placed rocks, a perfect green carpet, maybe a pair of tiny fish darting…
Dutch Aquascape and the Plant Focused Style That Predates Everything
Go into any aquatics store today and you’ll find aquariums arranged as Japanese rock gardens or stacked mountain cliffs of stone. What you won’t find is tanks planted in the…
Nature Aquarium Style and What Takashi Amano Actually Meant by It
Walk into any halfway decent aquatics shop and you’ll find tanks labelled as “Nature Style” or “Amano Style” that have no business wearing that name. To complete ignoramuses, they will…
Planted Aquarium Ideas for Every Budget From Beginner to Competition Level
Don’t worry. I know that feeling too. Eighteen months ago I walked into that aquatics shop clueless about what was about to happen. Spending £340 on a tank you decide…
Simple Planted Aquarium Ideas for People Who Don’t Want a Full Aquascape
Simple Planted Aquarium Ideas for Those That Don’t Want a Full Aquascape I know what you’re thinking. “aquascaping” dominated by impossibly balanced stacks of driftwood, carpet plants trimmed to perfection…
12 Aquatic Mosses That Changed How I Think About Underwater Landscapes (Plus My Biggest Moss Disasters)
To make myself sound less like a total geek, I need to confess that I have over 300 photos of moss on my phone. This isn’t aquarium moss; this is…
Five Aquascaping Styles I’ve Actually Used in My Classroom (And Why Three of Them Nearly Broke Me)
I’ve always got excited about teaching projects and then realised I had committed too much of myself. That’s basically been my relationship with classroom aquascaping. I began with one simple…
How to Plan an Aquascape Layout Before You Spend Any Money
Planning Your Layout Before Spending Any Money If you ask me what makes the difference between an aquascape making somebody thousands of pounds happy and thousands of pounds poorer, the…
The Complete Guide to Aquascaping Styles and Planted Aquarium Design
I approach most hobbies through the back door. Spend significant time learning everything I can about it from people who are already passionate, dive head first, fail miserably, and start…
Aquarium Planting Ideas and Layouts That Use the Rule of Thirds Properly
Aquarium Planting Ideas and Layouts That Use Rule Of Thirds Properly It took me ages to build the same tank over and over again trying dozens of plant placements, hardscape…
Planted Aquarium Styles Compared and Finding the One That Suits Your Tank
There’s nothing quite like trying out a style of aquascaping before you’ve even looked at what styles are available. It’s kind of like deciding you want to program in Go,…